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News releases

Brits stocking up for BBQ bonanza as warmest weekend of year predicted

16 May 2014

Brits are gearing up for a three day BBQ bonanza from today as the sunshine finally returns and summer gets under way.
With temperatures set to reach 24C on Sunday shoppers have already been stocking up for what will be the first prolonged BBQ weather of the year.

Brits are gearing up for a three day BBQ bonanza from today as the sunshine finally returns and summer gets under way.

With temperatures set to reach 24C on Sunday shoppers have already been stocking up for what will be the first prolonged BBQ weather of the year.

Many stores have seen demand soar for BBQ meats, salads, beer, wine, Pimms, ice cream and bags of charcoal.

Tesco BBQ meats buyer Emily Stuart said: “Brits are among the keenest BBQ fans in the world but for much of the spring they have been denied the pleasure because of dull or rainy weather.

“Now with weathermen predicting the warmest weekend of the year, shoppers are wasting no time in stocking up and judging by strong early sales many people will be spending the next few days enjoying al fresco dining in their gardens.”

This weekend Tesco expects to sell the following:

· 200,000 steaks

· 100,000 barbecue chicken packs

· 1 million packets of sausages

· 150,000 bottles of marinade

· 25,000 packets of halloumi

· 1 million ice lollies

· 350,000 tubs of ice cream

· 1 million bags of lettuce

· 1.8 million packets of tomatoes

· 1.2 million cucumbers

· 500,000 packets of new potatoes

· 1 million punnets of strawberries

· 3 million bottles of wine

· 90,000 bottles of Pimms

· 25 million bottles/cans of beer

· 150,000 bags of charcoal

· 100,000 instant BBQs

· 130,000 bottles of sun cream

Note to editors:

The UK’s unpredictable summers have given many food retailers a major headache in planning which types of fare to put out on their shelves.

Tesco now has a unique weather predicting system to help get the right products on the shelves for customers and save hundreds of thousands of pounds in food wastage.

The automated store ordering system, as it is known, combines weather data and customer behaviour over the last five years to produce pinpoint accurate predictions for demand in stores across the UK.

It can calculate accurately how much sales change in a region for every degree of temperature and every hour of sunshine. The system updates three times a day and within 30 minutes can re-calculate what foods need to be on the shop floor.

For more information please contact the Tesco Press Office on
01992 644645
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